One may think that a German automaker that has hydrogen fueling stations popping up all around the hillsides of Germany may be bullish on fuel cell vehicles at least in that country. But, this is not the case with Volkswagen.
In fact, VW is predicting that fuel cell vehicles will only be big in Japan.
According to Volkswagen Group Japan President Shigeru Shoji, “’It may fly within Japan, but not globally,’ said Shoji, 51. Fuel cells could become another example of the ‘Galapagos syndrome’ that plagues Japanese companies for making products that are only popular at home, he said.”
This is back-pedaling from a couple of years ago when Volkswagen was building hydrogen fuel cell prototypes right and left such as the HyMotion, Tiguan, Passat Lingyu and the Space Up Blue.
In the next 1 – 3 years commercial hydrogen FCVs are expected to rollout in Japan, Germany and California. If VW isn’t onboard with hydrogen vehicles by then, they may just miss the boat.
Most futurist stop at the age of 50 🙂 The man should try to read his company reports in German.
2013 – Ballard Signs Long-Term Engineering Services Contract To Advance Volkswagen AG Fuel Cell Automotive Research Program
http://www.ballard.com/about-ballard/newsroom/news-releases/news03061302.aspx